How To Set Up Instagram Shopping

Instagram shoppable posts are the ideal way for your e-commerce businesses to reach new people and increase sales on social media. Once you know how to set up Instagram shopping for your business, the addition of a simple tag means people can discover, learn about and buy your products even if they don’t follow you.

I’m a big fan of anything that makes businesses more easily discoverable even without a big brand budget.

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Why you should be using the shopping feature on Instagram

Adding tags to your product photos also allows your photos to show in the Instagram shopping tab on the explore feed. Which means you can reach new people who may not have come across your business or products on Instagram otherwise.

2 in 3 visitors to an Instagram business page are non followers, new to the brand. So, adding shopping tags to your photos gives them an easy way to find out more about your products.

60% of Instagram users say they learn about products from the platform

These shopping tags allow consumers to view the product details through Instagram and then complete the transaction on a separate landing page – usually your website. However, Instagram is currently rolling out the ability to check-out within the app to make it an even more seamless process.

Using shopping tags on Instagram allows people to discover you, look at your products and check out in under a minute! Perfect for impulse buys!

Step one: Connect to a catalogue

This is the do-it-yourself method. You can create yourself a new catalogue, or connect to an existing one.

Note: If you want to use product tags and stickers (which you most probably do), then you should choose an e-commerce catalogue.

Option B: Use a Facebook Partner.

If you are already using Shopify or BigCommerce you can simply integrate your catalogue from there.

Step two: Get approval

Next you’ll need to wait for Facebook to review your catalogue and approve everything. Providing your catalogue complies with their policies you should get approval within 2-3 days.

Step three: Enable shopping on Instagram

Open your Instagram app, go to your profile and hit the ‘burger’ icon.

Select settings & then business.

If you have approval you will then get the option to tap ‘shopping’

Tap continue, select your catalogue and tap done.

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Step four: Create a shopping post or story

Now you know how to set up Instagram shopping, you can now create your post and start to tag your products.

You can feature up to five products per post, and up 20 products on a carousel post. Instagram stories can include one product sticker per story.

Now you are set up you can also go back and add shopping tags to existing posts on your Instagram grid.

Tips for selling on Instagram

When adding shopping tags on your Instagram photos, ensure you tag clearly by place the tag so it appears on the product itself rather than in a space around it.

Experiment by tagging products in single images or carousel posts to see what works best for your business. Don’t forget to tag products in stories as this is still an under utilised feature and will set you apart from the competition.

According to Instagram, tagging 2 products in your images results in more engagement.

Ensure that your captions are engaging and start conversations, even when they have product tags. Don’t feel that you can only tag products when your caption is a sales post.

Check your insights to see how your shopping posts are performing. Your insights will give you information about who your customers are and what they want.

Still not sure how to do this? Why not book a power hour so we can work through it together!

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by Laura Moore

Laura is a Facebook marketing consultant specialising in Facebook and Instagram ads. She works with businesses to help generate leads and increase sales. To find out more about how Laura can help you click here

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